Viking Objects
Hack-gold (CM.1800-2008)
This rounded ingot terminal was cut from a larger rectangular ingot. Though rarer than hacksilver, this gold ingot formed part of the bullion currency used by Vikings in England and may be associated with their winter camp in Torksey.
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Viking Objects
Stamped Finger Ring (NCL-90DD85)
A silver finger ring made from a sheet of silver cut to size featuring circular punched decoration. Rings like this with knotted ends are typically Scandinavian.
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Viking Objects
Mystery Hacksilver
A fragment of silver from an unidentified object. The piece has been pierced at one end but may have come from an armring or other piece of jewellery. As hacksilver, it would have been used to pay for items by weight of silver.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Copper Alloy-Edged Lead Weight
A lead weight edged with a copper alloy band.
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Viking Objects
Brooch with Backwards-Facing Beast (NLM-08BAEB)
It has been suggested that the beast motif on this brooch represents a horse, but identification is uncertain. This brooch was probably the property of an ordinary person rather than of a member of the social elite. It is of a fairly common type. For more information on Scandinavian jewellery in England check out our blog: Brooches, Pendants and Pins: Scandinavian Dress Accessories in England.
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Viking Objects
Arabic Silver Dirham Fragment (SWYOR-1AE8AA)
This silver dirham fragment does not provide enough information to determine the ruler or moneyer but it seems to be from the seventh to ninth century. The dirham was a unit of weight used across North Africa, the Middle East, and Persia, with varying values which also referred to the type of coins used in the Middle East during the Viking Age. These coins were extremely prized possessions not only for their silver value but as a way of displaying one’s wealth and vast trade connections. Millions of Arabic dirhams would have been imported throughout the Viking world and are mostly found in hoards.
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Viking Names
Toynton All Saints
Toynton All Saints, in the Bolingbroke Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is probably ‘the farmstead, village associated with or called after Tota’, from the Old English male personal name Tota with the Old English medial connective particle -ing and Old English element tun ‘farm, settlement’. Alternatively, the first element could be Old English tot ‘a look-out’. Thus, ‘farm/settlement at *Toting (= the look-out place)’. The affix is from the dedication of the church.
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Viking Names
Riby
Riby, in the Yarborough Wapentake of Lincolnshire, was originally an Old English compound Rygetun ‘the farmstead or village where rye grows’. The Old English tun ‘farm, settlement’ was replaced by Old Norse by ‘farm, settlement’.
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Viking Names
Fenby
Fenby, in the Haverstoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid from Old English fenn ‘a fen, a marsh, marshland’ and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. It is most likely to be a partial Scandinavianization of an earlier Old English place-name, perhaps Fenton, with a similar meaning. Fenby is now a joint parish with Ashby, and the name survives in Fenby Farm, which lies in what must have been a fenny area on the lower slope of the Wolds.
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Viking Names
Irby upon Humber
Irby upon Humber, in the Bradley Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from Old Norse Íra,the genitive plural form of Íri ‘an Irishman; probably also a Norseman who had lived in Ireland’ and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. The reference is probably to an isolated settlement of Norwegian vikings from Ireland, or perhaps Irishmen who came with the vikings to England. However, the exact implications of such a name are not yet fully understood and are the subject of ongoing work by Dr Jayne Carroll of the Institute for Name-Studies, University of Nottingham. Irby upon Humber is to distinguish the place from Irby in the Marsh, also in Lincolnshire.
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Viking Objects
Pin-Beater (NLM-78D3B5)
This pin-beater was made from a large mammal limb bone, trimmed to a rounded point and smoothed and glossed by wear and handling. Single-ended simple weaving tools are a class linked to the Anglo-Scandinavian use of the vertical loom.